The Legacy of Tinkerbell
by CarmenStiletto
Summary: Tinkerbell finds a new adventure after being left on Neverland by Peter Pan.
1. Chapter 1

The days had never been the same since Peter Pan left the island. With Captain Hook long since defeated and the Lost Boys in a new home on the mainland, Peter couldn't survive being alone. He was very much the little boy that he had always been and seemed to spring back after Wendy took her two little brothers home, but after a while it became evident that Peter missed Wendy. I even began to realize, much to my dismay, that he had grown to love her. My Peter Pan, in love with the Wendy Bird.

And so he left. With simple instructions to take my medicine and to stay out of trouble, and a hefty bag of pixie dust for his journey, he left, without a backward glance. Just like that, I was alone again.

I made do for a while; I tried to integrate myself into the fairy community to reconnect with those of my own kind. But it was always dancing, singing, making flowers grow, the likes. After a while, one grows tired of the constant melody of the forest.

Every once in a while I broke away to try to talk to the mermaids, hoping one would break the surface of the water and share some stories with me. But the mermaids were all the same: vengeful, dark creatures with a knack for shrieking at unwanted guests. How was it that Peter had been able to speak to them? How could he even understand them?

Days turned into weeks; weeks into months. I prayed every night that my Peter would return; even the return of Wendy would have been welcomed. It had been almost a year and I was growing very wary of life in Neverland.

It only took one fight with a neighbor fairy about my littering the cove with lost things I'd acquired on the shore to make up my mind about leaving Neverland to find Peter. I would be with him and Wendy, even if it meant becoming a household pet.

And so I set off, with a rucksack full of food and a tiny drawn map of London that I had bartered off of an elderly fairy. What was it that Peter had said to Wendy? "Third star on the left and straight on 'till morning!" So all I had to do were follow those instructions backwards. _Head into the night…and third star on the left, no, right…_

As fast as my wings could take me, I flew towards the dusk, and let the darkness overtake me. For a few moments I saw nothing, I heard nothing. I just felt my wings working hard to get to the stars. And then there they were. One by one they started appearing. There were three, and then four, and then twenty, and soon the whole sky was littered with stars. So how in the world was I going to find the third star on the right?

I just kept flying, hoping the right star would reveal itself. Suddenly, as if someone had adjusted the brightness, six stars began to shine more vividly than the rest. _First, second…third star on the right_. I altered my course and then flew straight for what felt like hours, until a serene looking blue planet grew out of oblivion.

Soon I was alighting on London, England, searching for the town depicted by my weathered map. When I found it, I searched for the house I remembered visiting with Peter to listen to the stories—all the true accounts—of the magical boy named Peter Pan.

The house stood, but not at all in its former splendor. I landed on a sill next to an open window where a young woman tended to the flowers in the flowerpots that brightened up the bedroom.

"Ms. Wendy?" the young woman called. My heart skipped. "Are you quite sure there isn't anything I can get you?"

"No thank you, Bathilda. My Peter will be home shortly." _He was _my_ Peter_, I began to fume, but then realized this was no young girl that spoke. This was an old woman facing the end of her days. And she sounded distant, as if her mind were trapped in Neverland.

"Ma'am, Mr. Pan is no longer with us, don't you remember? He passed away last Spring."

_That can't be…I just saw him last Summer!_ Ms. Wendy echoed my thoughts.

"No, dear, he's just out to pick up some more tea! "

"Ma'am…he's gone. I'm so very sorry."

"He's…gone? My Peter?" The woman began to sob and I pushed myself off of the windowsill with such force that I struck my head on the overhanging roof. I shook it off and sped towards somewhere more private, finally landing on top of Big Ben. If it was true, if living on Neverland had made me miss an entire lifetime of people on the mainland, then Peter Pan really was gone. He was truly an old man and his time had finally come. I laid in silence because I couldn't cry, I couldn't be angry, I couldn't even emote. I was alone.


	2. Chapter 2

What was the point of even existing anymore? I had no purpose and no friends, nobody who even remotely cared about my existence. I knew the phrase, "There's no such thing as fairies" could kill, but did it work when a fairy itself said it?

_There's no point in life._

_There's no point in me._

_There's no such thing as fairies._

_There's no such thing as fairies._

_There's no such thing as fairies…_

_Come on, Universe! _There's no such thing as fairies!

I stared at the sky hoping for death to seize me, but no such relief came. Instead, I heard a voice, one belonging to a small boy. At first I thought Peter Pan had come to me, and I prepared to be very angry with him for leaving me and for leading me to believe he had passed away an old man. But I searched and could not find him.

"I _do_ believe in fairies,_ I do! I do!_"

I sighed in frustration. This young boy, whoever he was, was keeping me alive against my own will. I sought to quiet him when I found a child in tattered clothing, hanging about inside of Big Ben. He looked no older than eleven and wore a very earnest expression on his face.

"I _do _believe in fairies, _I do! I do!_"

I landed on a beam close to where he was and observed his plea. He was kneeled on the floorboards with his hands clasped in front of him, looking towards the heavens. I made to take a step forward but misplaced my footing and fell a few feet before flying back up and out of sight. I hoped he had not seen me but it was too late.

"Fairy! Wait! Come back, oh, please come back!" He got to his feet quickly and ran to look up into the rafters. "Come talk to me, please! Will you be my friend?"

The last thing I wanted was a new friend, especially since I had just lost my best friend and greatest love. But I couldn't leave Big Ben without being seen. I would have to camp out in the rafters until he left, which had to be soon. His mother must have been looking for him.

I tried hard to stay quiet, and found a dark corner to sit in while I waited for the boy to get bored. Soon, it got dark and the inside of the clock grew colder and colder. The boy had finally grown tired of searching and accepted that I must have gotten out, but he did not leave. It wasn't until night had completely fallen and he began to make a bed for himself out of his coat and hat that I realized that he had no home to go to and was living inside Big Ben. This was going to make for a very long night. I knew he was going to have to leave sometime to go find food, so if I wanted to remain unseen, I was going to have to wait out of sight. If I got remotely closer in this darkness, my light would give me away instantly.

As my eyelids grew heavy and my body sore from sitting up against the wall, I stopped caring about leaving and thought longingly of sleep instead. I began to doze off, until something brought me back to.

"Dear God," said the boy, his voice ringing through the still air, "Please let me meet a fairy like Ms. Wendy's. I want to go on adventures like the boy Peter in her stories. Please, God. Amen." The boy laid down on the floor to go to sleep, leaving me in the silence with my thoughts.

Peter would have welcomed the extra companion. He would have loved another lost boy to play with. But why wasn't my company enough to keep him around? I cradled my head in my arms and softly cried myself to sleep.


End file.
